


Thursday, 3:27 PM

by 6purplecats



Category: Original Work
Genre: M/M, Zombie Apocalypse, zrp
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-07
Updated: 2017-06-07
Packaged: 2018-11-10 04:57:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,029
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11120364
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/6purplecats/pseuds/6purplecats
Summary: A guy with no destination ponders his feelings for a friend he might never see again, while a zombie is doing some post-mortem shopping.





	Thursday, 3:27 PM

**Author's Note:**

> Original Characters. This piece I wrote as a prologue to an RP I'm doing with a friend.

It was a Thursday. 3:27 PM.

The red numbers of the satellite clock seemed to burn into Adrian’s vision. He felt like he was looking at a bomb, counting down his last minutes in this world without hope. Except the clock was counting up, not down. Adrian wasn’t sure if he was happy with that. He had been wandering aimlessly for days now. No destination in mind, no great safe haven that he had any knowledge of. He simply walked and survived, whether he liked it or not.

After days of simply watching the world glide past him like a brutal documentary, rediscovering something as solid as time felt absurd to him. Absurd, because for all the structure, steadiness and order that time might have once brought to the world, it had now been forgotten and cast aside. The dead never had any plans to get to, no deadlines to meet, no goals to pursue. And now, most of the living didn’t either.

Adrian turned away from the satellite clock’s meaningless numbers. He was standing in a small shop not too far away from the freeway he had been following. He had hoped, ridiculous as that was, that he would have been able to find some provisions, or _anything_ that would have had a scrap of use to take with him. No Luck, as usual. He was pondering whether he should keep following the freeway or try a different route. He had been following the freeway for days now, encountering more abandoned cars and gas stations than he could count. They were always empty, looted by other people, animals, _things._ But this shop didn’t look very promising either, and Adrian wondered if he would ever find something comparable to civilization.

His thoughts came to an abrupt halt when he picked up a sound from somewhere near the entrance of the store. He dropped to the floor behind a toppled over display case, the fake designer watches it had once proudly presented to potential customers now strewn haphazardly across the surrounding floor. He held his breath as he listened carefully to the nearing sounds. It sounded like someone shuffling over the floor, the occasional squeak giving away the fact that the person was wearing sneakers. Apart from that, Adrian could also hear the sound of breathing, except…

Adrian’s heart stopped. Then it started up again at twice its normal speed.

He could hear breathing, but it did not sound human. The breaths sounded rough and guttural, wet almost. As if the person had water in their lungs. Perhaps they did, perhaps the zombie had fallen into a lake somewhere and managed to make their way out. With every step the zombie made, Adrian could feel his heart rate rising. He didn’t know what was wrong with this zombie; he wasn’t sure if normally zombies even needed to breathe.

He also did not have any weapons with him. It wouldn’t be long before the zombie would discover him, and he had no way to defend himself. He was going to die here –

 

_“Are you… hiding from someone?”_

– Adrian blinked. Those words had not been spoken by anyone in that shop. He briefly wondered if maybe he was losing his mind when he remembered where he had heard those words before. He sighed. Then he let the memory play out in his mind, because he had no other way to fight the swelling in his chest –

 

_Adrian jumped at the sudden question. He hadn’t realized someone had walked up to him, or that anyone had noticed him sitting behind the giant oak tree at all._

_It was fall, but still quite warm outside. He had just started high school, and his dad had insisted he would be fine but… He couldn’t say he had really managed to make any friends. The only person he might have considered a friend he had spilled soda all over during lunch today, so he didn’t think she would want to talk to him anymore._

_The first place he’d sought out after class was a quiet place where he could sit and draw. Art was one of the few things he felt he could do properly, but that didn’t really matter. When the schools had started receiving less funds from the government, the first thing to go had been the art classes. After all, art was not a necessity in a world that was on its way to destruction._

_By now the school didn’t even have sports teams anymore, and after class ended there weren’t many activities left to do. Adrian supposed that was why the boy now standing before him had been roaming the school grounds and stumbled upon him. The question threw Adrian off a little, but he supposed with the way he was sitting completely out of sight, covered by a tree… it didn’t take a genius to realize what he was trying to do._

 

– Clinking sounds came from the direction of the zombie. It had probably found the sales bin filled to the brim with Christmas ornaments. The echoes of the baubles crashing to the ground were deafening –

 

_The boy apparently noticed that he had startled Adrian, because he quickly put up both his hands in a surrendering gesture. “Sorry! I didn’t meant to eh, pry or anything. I was just looking for a spot where I could sit down and read this book…” He took a book titled ‘First Aid in Emergencies: The Detailed Guide’ out of his bag and held it up for Adrian to see. Adrian couldn’t help but wondering why someone would read a ‘detailed guide’ about anything for fun, but he had never been much of a reader._

_–_ Adrian held his breath when the sounds of the zombie’s shuffling moved his way. The zombie was close enough to smell now. He heard the sounds of old shampoo bottles toppling over and caps being ripped off –

 

_He gave himself a mental push to_ say something, _because the boy in front of him seemed to grow more uncomfortable by the second. “Oh no, it’s okay! I’m not really hiding I’m just eh… well I was looking for a place to be alone for a second…” Adrian realized his mistake when the guy started putting his book back in his bag. Before he could say anything, Adrian quickly added “But you can sit here too if you want! It’s not as if you’ll bother me if you’re just going to read!” By now Adrian was ready to slap himself. “N-not that you can’t talk to me! You won’t bother me by talking to me either!”_

_The guy blinked once and stayed silent for a bit, perhaps to see if Adrian had anything else he wanted to hurriedly add to his embarrassing stream of nonsense. In any case, he looked thoroughly confused, and Adrian was completely ready for the guy to suddenly have a ‘dentist appointment’ and run. So it surprised Adrian a little when instead, the guy’s face cracked into a hesitant smile. “Ah, okay…” he said. His tone still sounded a little confused, but he did sit down next to Adrian, both of their backs resting on the same oak tree. “I’m Tetsuya,” he introduced himself, in a tone that suggested he’d almost forgotten to do so. Adrian responded with his own introduction, and couldn’t stop smiling the rest of the afternoon._

_Because regardless of all the other embarrassing things he said that afternoon, Tetsuya never laughed at him or tried to leave. In fact, the next day Adrian found him again, his back leaning against the same oak tree. It was then that Adrian came to realize he had actually made a friend._

 

The memory was followed by snippets of the following years. Adrian didn’t remember every event as clearly anymore, but he remembered the first time Tetsu had taken a look at his sketchbook and called his drawings amazing, as well as the rising feeling that had given him in his chest. He remembered the one time he asked Tetsu about one of the books he had been reading. He didn’t remember what Tetsu had answered, because Adrian hadn’t understood a word of it, but he remembered the spark that appeared in Tetsu’s eyes whenever he talked about stuff like that. He remembered when he had managed to run straight into a pointy branch, and Tetsu had to disinfect the cut on his forehead… and that that was the moment he realized Tetsu was more than just a friend to him.

As the zombie continued making its way through the store, Adrian knew that he would give anything to trade places with his 15-year-old self. The guy whose biggest concern was that he rambled like an idiot when he was nervous. He wanted nothing more than to be back underneath that oak tree, with years still ahead of him that would be easy compared to dealing with the undead. Maybe he would do some things differently, if he would be given the chance… Maybe he would be less of a coward.

A little voice in the back of his mind scoffed in disagreement. _Even now, would you be able to tell him how you feel? If he was right in front of you?_ Adrian didn’t answer. He didn’t know the answer… or maybe he didn’t like the answer. _Whatever, you’ll probably never see him again anyway…_ He knew it was the truth, but his heart still clenched at the thought.

Adrian jumped when a loud crash interrupted his thoughts and echoed through the store. He clamped his mouth shut as best as he could, trying to stop himself from making any sounds. The zombie shuffling sounded more urgent all of a sudden. As the disturbing breathing sounds got louder and faster, it started to sound more like wheezing. Adrian wondered how well zombies could hear, and if it could hear his heart thumping in his chest. He wondered if maybe it could smell his fear. He wondered if maybe he should just stop hiding… and stop delaying the inevitable.

He wasn’t able to finish that thought. Without warning, Adrian’s ears were assaulted with a wide array of deafening sounds, most prominently that of screeching tires, machine guns, and shattering glass. Reflexively, he made himself as small as he possible could, making sure the toppled over display case still covered him. For about fifteen seconds, Adrian feared that maybe the world had ended and this was hell. Then, the sounds of the machine guns stopped, and the sounds of screeching tires picked up again along with that of drunk victory songs. The songs moved away and eventually died out, leaving the shop in complete silence.

Adrian carefully lifted his head to look at the wall above him, peppered with bullet holes. Then he lowered his eyes to see he was covered in debris. He let out the breath he had been holding, and found his whole body was shaking. He let out a whispered curse along with a sob, and rubbed his face. He was surprised to find his cheeks were wet, had he been crying?

It took a while until he stopped shaking, and much longer until he finally came out of his hiding spot. He didn’t know how long he’d been hiding. He didn’t look at the satellite clock, somehow still intact, blinking red in the corner of his eye. He didn’t care.

The zombie was lying dead in the middle of the shop. Its body was filled with bullet holes, but the only one that mattered was the one in its forehead. Adrian let out a shaky sigh when he saw that it was a middle aged woman. Her hair and clothes were wet and she had seaweed in her hair. The shop had to be close to either a lake or the sea then. Slowly, Adrian made his way to the door. His mind was numb, and his body had taken full control. He didn’t go back to the freeway yet. Instead, he followed a path that looked like it lead to a forest.

He wanted to find a stream, and wash his face.


End file.
